The present invention relates to firearms, and particularly to a device for attaching a sling to the barrel of a shoulder weapon.
In order to be able to use a shoulder weapon such as a rifle, grenade launcher, or the like as quickly as possible, yet have freedom to use their hands when not actually firing such a weapon, soldiers often prefer to carry such a weapon in a forwardly or laterally directed position, with the weapon in the upright attitude in which it is used, and its barrel approximately horizontal. This position is now known as a horizontal ready position.
Rifles, particularly military rifles, and military grenade launchers, have long been equipped with slings permitting them to be carried without encumbering the carrier's hands. Such slings are also useful in bracing the weapon during use, to achieve better control and aim. Such slings have conventionally been attached to the bottom of the forestock or barrel and buttstock of a military shoulder weapon to permit the weapon to be carried with the barrel pointing upward. Attachment of a sling at such a location is chosen at least partly because attachment of a sling at the top of the weapon might interfere with use of the weapon's sights.
A sling may be attached with its forward end looped around a sloping portion of a raised front sight assembly such as that of the M-16 rifle used by the armed forces of the United States. It would be preferred to have the front end of a sling attached to the weapon in some other fashion in order to avoid the possibility of the sling interfering visually with use of the sights. Leaving the front end of the sling attached to the usual front sling loop commonly called a sling swivel, however, does not ordinarily result in the weapon hanging stably in the horizontal ready position.
Usually the front sling loop of a military shoulder weapon is a simple loop of metal defining an opening wide enough to receive the flexible strap of the sling. This sling loop normally has a neck which is pivoted with respect to the weapon, about a horizontal transverse axis. The neck is attached to the weapon normally between a pair of ears extending downwardly beneath the barrel. For example, a pair of ears extend downwardly beneath the rear portion of the front sight of a military weapon of the M-16 type and its civilian counterpart, the AR-15 rifle.
Many weapons of the M-16 type have been manufactured and will remain in military use for the foreseeable future. What is needed, then, is a simply installed device to attach the front end of a sling to such a weapon securely, to convert the weapon for use of its sling to suspend the weapon in the desired horizontal ready position.